The hardest part of learning Chinese

There is a word going around that Chinese is the most difficult language in the world. I don’t really agree with it, just go and take a look at Finnish grammar and then decide which one you think is more difficult to master. But of course learning a language that is very different to your native language isn’t easy either. So what actually makes Chinese a hard language for a Westerner?

Last Monday I read China elevator stories blog post about the topic and besides leaving my comment, I also wanted to share my opinion on my blog too. I think it’s really interesting to share our experiences in learning Chinese and share some advice to beginners at the same time.

As an elementary level learner I thought the hardest part in learning Chinese was listening. It was hard to differentiate the tones and Chinese people seem to speak so fast. Even I could have understood the sentence in writing, it took me time to understand it in spoken form. Mandarin spoken in different parts of China also sound totally different from the textbooks, so getting used to the different accents takes time.

Besides listening, I also thought speaking was really hard, much harder than writing or reading. I always had to translate a sentence in my head before saying it out loud. I still remember the first time I said a spontaneous sentence in Chinese. I was buying bread at a bakery and the cashier noticed a ring in my finger and asked if I was married. I effortlessly told her that the ring was given me by my mother and I wasn’t married. I was like “Wow, I just said that without thinking!”

Then I got to the intermediate level and our textbook at Sun Yat-Sen University started to have longer and longer vocabulary lists. Fifty or sixty words per lesson that were needed to memorize for the coming exams. I tackled the challenge with Skritter, but it was hard to keep up. I was always the most productive during the beginning of the semester and then right before exams.

Right now at an advanced level there are a few different kind of challenges I’m facing.

Writing formal language, in Chinese called as 书面语 shūmiànyǔ. Taking the step from informal writing to formal writing haven’t been too easy. I have learned a lot by writing my thesis in Chinese, but there are still many formal words and sentence patterns to be learned.

Synonyms (近义词 jìnyìcí) are also something that trouble intermediate and advanced learners. The difference could be in meaning, usage or both. I bought a Synonyms Dictionary made by my teacher to help me learn more synonyms one pair or group at the time.

Improving pronunciation has always been a big challenge from me, right from the beginning to today. Locals can usually understand me just fine and my pronunciation problems doesn’t usually hinder communication. But in my own opinion my pronunciation isn’t good enough yet and I’m thinking of finding a tutor to help me with it.

On thing I need to accept at this point of my Chinese studies is that progress isn’t as fast as in the beginning. When you start from zero you learn so much everyday, but later on it will gradually slow down. The higher you climb, the harder it’s to see your improvement.

The most important advice I can give to others learning Chinese is to not give up! If you go forward you will learn new things and you will improve even if you don’t see it yourself.

What do you think? What is the hardest part in learning Chinese for you?

I’m totally in the same boat with you Linda! I absolutely love that I’m being able to learn Chinese as my major, but still long are gone those days when everything about learning Chinese was so much fun :D

What about your journey to learn English? Was it your first foreign language? If so, was it harder to learn English (or your first foreign language) than Chinese?

Usually the first foreign language is overwhelmingly the hardest. How many years have you learned English compared to Chinese? How would you evaluate your level in those languages?

Mastering Finnish at the highest possible academic level in my opinion is MUCH easier than for example English. Finnish vocabulary is light-years ahead in efficiency, if one really masters (and develops) the language.

Yes, English was my first foreign language and I started learning it on the 3rd year of primary school. It was hard at first because I had transferred from another school and my new classmates had started learning the language in 1st grade already. But with extra lessons I soon catched them up.

Chinese is absolutely harder for me to learn than English. Finnish and English doesn’t have much to do with each other, but Chinese is even more foreign. Especially because of the tones and characters.

So I started studying English when I was 8 years old and started learning Chinese in 2008 when I was 20 years old. My English is much better than Chinese in listening, reading and writing. My spoken English has gotten a bit worse since I moved to China but is still better than my Mandarin.

Any new language is difficult to grasp and learn. The important and the difficult part is not giving up. Its the crucial time, when one has possibility to lose confidence. Chinese is an unique language, and in order to
learn to speak Chinese
language adopting the right methodology and approach to start learning the language has its advantages in the long run. This makes the learning process easier and faster.